So long were the ministry in sending the necessary supplies to Cabot, that, tired of waiting, he returned to Spain, after an absence of five years, in the year 1531: but not being well received at court, he continued a few years in the Spanish service, and returned to England in the latter end of the reign of Henry VIII. In the following reign he was made grand pilot of England, with a pension of 166_l._ 13_s._ 4_d._ per annum; a sum in those times equal to 1000_l._ at present. During the reign of Edward, and that of Philip and Mary, many privileges were granted to Cabot; he was made governor of the Russian company, and had the management of the expedition which sailed under Sir Hugh Willoughby to the North Seas. The variation of the compass was first observed by this celebrated man, though Ferdinand Columbus in the life of his father, printed at Venice, in Italian, in 1571, asserts, that the admiral first noticed it on the 14th of September 1492. Cabot published a large map of his discoveries in North America, which was hung up in the gallery at Whitehall. He also wrote an account of his voyage in the North American seas, in Italian, which was printed at Venice in 1583 in one volume folio; and is very scarce. Juan de Ayolas followed up the discoveries of Cabot in Paraguay, having had a commission, troops, and stores given him, in 1536, for that purpose, by Don Pedro de Mendoza, the first governor of Buenos Ayres. By the orders of Ayolas, Juan de Salinas founded the city of Asuncion, but the conquest of the natives being attended with much difficulty, and Ayolas and his party having been murdered by them, Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca, the second governor of Buenos Ayres, undertook their subjugation in person. He had arrived with 400 men to take the chief command, in case of the death of Ayolas, and finding that this event had happened, he collected all the settlers in Buenos Ayres, and detaching Irala, who had acted as governor before his arrival, into the interior, with ninety men, to report on the state of the country, was so satisfied with what he had seen, that he set out with 200 Spaniards, and 1200 Guarani Indians, and entered Paraguay; but meeting with reverses, owing to the mutinous conduct of his troops, who were corrupted by Irala, he was forced to return, when he was deposed and sent to Spain; Irala then assumed the chief command, and by his conduct soon reduced the natives, and rendered the Spanish settlements secure. The Indians were parcelled out to the conquerors, and in 1547, the city of Asuncion was erected into a bishopric.